Kitty Empire in the Observer on their O2 gig and the "phenomenon" of manufactured pop... pretty intelligent assessment... I remember starting this with The Bay City Rollers. Yes, The Monkees were created before us but that was for TV.

www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/apr/07/one...ion-review-o2-london

"Kitty Empire"???

Yes; famed young new music critic.

Not famed, mate.

Well I'd heard of her...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Empire

JK2006 wrote:
Kitty Empire in the Observer on their O2 gig and the "phenomenon" of manufactured pop... pretty intelligent assessment... I remember starting this with The Bay City Rollers. Yes, The Monkees were created before us but that was for TV.

www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/apr/07/one...ion-review-o2-london

Were the rollers the first? I had no idea. How did it all come about?

JK2006 wrote:
Well I'd heard of her...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Empire

I look forward to the next 'famed music critics' round on Pointless. I reckon her name would probably get, oh, three votes, tops.

JK2006 wrote:
I remember starting this with The Bay City Rollers. Yes, The Monkees were created before us but that was for TV.

Hmmm, careful JK, BCR may have had their first hit in 1971, but "Rollermania" didn't start until 1974, by which time The Osmonds, David Cassidy, The Jacksons and maybe even Marc Bolan could all claim to have blazed that particular trail... there's also a case to say that BCR only went truly stratospheric after their own TV show "Shang-A-Lang" came along... it will be interesting to see if Morgan Spurlock's 1 Direction film takes any interesting left-turns, or will just be a fan flick.

Also interesting to see BCR's rapid chart decline BTW, from biggest-selling single of 1975, to not even making the top 10 2 years later... in my head, they hung around a lot longer.

Metal Mickey wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
I remember starting this with The Bay City Rollers. Yes, The Monkees were created before us but that was for TV.

Hmmm, careful JK, BCR may have had their first hit in 1971, but "Rollermania" didn't start until 1974, by which time The Osmonds, David Cassidy, The Jacksons and maybe even Marc Bolan could all claim to have blazed that particular trail... there's also a case to say that BCR only went truly stratospheric after their own TV show "Shang-A-Lang" came along... it will be interesting to see if Morgan Spurlock's 1 Direction film takes any interesting left-turns, or will just be a fan flick.

Also interesting to see BCR's rapid chart decline BTW, from biggest-selling single of 1975, to not even making the top 10 2 years later... in my head, they hung around a lot longer.


I think of "manufactured" pop as when you have models to front what is really studio musicians such as Tony Burrows (sixties) or when a band is put together for a specific project.

...and I remember being in studio with the New Kids on the Block JK...it never ends and once in a while through the years one of them goes through the roof. Although someone is always financing and pushing one, always.

I saw One Direction at the Brits this year falling all over themselves onstage and off and honestly I thought (laughing) it just never ends.

The article is right on.